Steel Talons

"A terribly fun polygonal flight simulator"

The Atari Lynx. If you said this to most people, they'd go ''Huh?'' Not many people know about this nifty little system. It was one of the first, color hand-held systems. When it was released, it was one of the original four competitors in what I like to call the hand-held war. The other three combatants where the Turbo Express, Game Gear, and Game Boy. The Game Boy was the winner, obviously, but largely because the merits of the other systems weren't as obvious. Steel Talons takes advantage of one of the Lynx's best merits; a merit if had been more well known, the Lynx would have sold much better.

Gameplay
Steel Talons is a combat helicopter simulator that uses the Lynx's pseudo-3D polygons. This makes the game a tad choppy, but that's the way all the pseudo-3D games act on Lynx. You are given various missions, usually combat mission, in which you take your helicopter and blow everything up. You're helicopter has three different weapons. You have a machine gun, which is your main weapon. This will usually do in most enemies if you keep a constant spray. You also have missiles and rockets. You get 8 missiles and 40 rockets. There is a slight problem using these that deals with the controls. There are also some flying missions, where you fly to a specific target. These are fun, because it takes a mastery of speed, and is a relief from standard combat missions.

The missions work on a time base. You start out in the center of the map, and have a certain amount of time to complete the mission. The problem is, you are only given the target time after you complete the mission. This means you have to ride the gas for most of the missions. You also have to keep an eye on your ammo. Running out of bullets during a mission, but you're likely to run out of rockets and missiles. It's also suggested that you do take advantage of all your weapons. They get refilled after each mission, so there is no bonus in conserving ammo.

The biggest problem in gameplay lies with the Lynx itself. The Lynx likes to eat batteries. So much so that unless you dedicate one round of batteries to this game alone, you probably won't get very far.

Controls
Not bad, but not great. Normally, you control speed and direction with the D-Pad, but with the B button depressed, you control altitude with the D-Pad. Missiles are in a place where you won't accidentally press the button and waste missiles. The machine gun takes the A button, which is good because it is meant to be your main weapon. The problem is finding out how to fire rockets. The controls listed in the manual are conflicting.

Story
None. None at all. The commander gives you your orders and you do them. That's it. The advantage is, the game speaks to you to give to you the orders.

Audio/Video
Audio is only so-so. There's music on the title screen and digitized speech for mission objectives. There's also some sound effects during the game for your weapons, but that's it. Video isn't bad. Nice pseudo-3D and detailed environments. There is a third person and cockpit view, which I think is incredible.

Replayabilty
Also so-so. Unless you have an AC adaptor, get ready to play the same missions over and over again. This get's boring after a while. But the game is still fun.

Buy/Rent?
You'd not be able to rent this if you wanted. If you've got a Lynx, you should have this in your collection. It's not expensive and is fun despite being ten years old.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/14/02, Updated 09/14/02